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| A "Mountain Chicken". |
Contrary to the name, the Mountain Chicken isn't actually a large alpine bird. It is infact, a species of frog found only in the Caribbean islands of Dominica and Montserrat. The name "Mountain Chicken" is actually only the local name that the people
have given to the frog due to its very large size and the fact that it
is eaten for food.
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| The real Mountain Chicken, showing just how large this species is! |
The actual population figures for this species do not even reach 100. It is estimated that there are only 44 wild individuals left on the Dominica islands and 3 on Montserrat.
On Dominica, the population was once healthy and stable and the frog was a popular food source for local people, being particularly favoured for its
legs which are cooked in traditional West Indian dishes. The Mountain Chicken actually used to be the country's national dish, but was replaced in 2013 after this became problematic considering it's conservation status. Prior to this, annual harvests were thought to be taking between 8,000 and 36,000
animals before the ban on hunting was introduced, but the population had already been highly damaged. The frog is particularly vulnerable as
it has a small brood size, which limits its ability to recover
from heavy losses. Its large size, loud calls and attraction to
open spaces also made it an easy target for hunters.
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| Mountain Chicken's aren't very good at hiding or keeping out of sight. Photo by Jenny Spencer. |
This combined with habitat loss and introduced invasive predators have also had an effect on the population. But the most recent threat now comes from a familiar amphibian foe which has decimated frog populations worldwide... Chytrid Fungus.
Chytridiomycosis is the disease
that occurs when an amphibian is infected with large amounts of the chytrid fungus "Bd". There are numerous varieties of chytrid fungus but the "Bd" fungus is the most problematic as evidence suggests that it is capable of infecting the majority of the world's 6000 amphibian species. The fungus causes the skin to become thicker and tougher. This is a huge issue for amphibians as rather than drinking water and gaining vital nutrients through their mouth, they absorb it all through their skin.
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| Global cases of Bd in 2009. (from Fisher, et al., 2009) |
The fungus is highly infectious and spreads through habitats largely via water and moist or wet materials, being able to persist in the moist environments that amphibians favour for several months. The fungus was spread to Dominica and Montserrat in 2002 and quickly made its way around the islands infecting the Mountain Chicken population.
Chytridiomycosis has quickly become the worst disease and one of the biggest threats to amphibians that the world has ever known. Steps being taken to combat it include the reduction in shipping of amphibians around the world and much stricter screening and quarantine measures. Fortunatly, scientists are on the case, and last year saw the first ever successful elimination of chytrid fungus in a wild amphibian population. This study is a significant step forward in potentially halting the damage of this disease but there is still a lot more research ongoing and lots left to do.
The paper can be found in Biology Letters here.
For more information on Mountain Chicken conservation you can visit: http://www.mountainchicken.org
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